Depending upon the individual and the nature of the application, boating may comprise anything from a leisurely paddle about a lake's shoreline to an extended trip into wilderness areas or other generally inaccessible watercourses. Depending as well on the intended use, a boat or boats are selected to be compatible therewith.
For these reasons, boats are manufactured in a variety of styles, shapes, sizes, weights and/or carrying capacities, and of a variety of natural and/or manufactured materials. The materials employed range through wood to metal, plastics, laminates such as Fiberglass and Kevlar, animal skins, cement, concrete and include composites of any and/or all of the preceding materials as well as other materials.
Further, boats may include a single or a plurality of seats, fixturing to permit rowing, arrangements for attachment of outboard motors, live wells and any of a plethora of devices, appurtenances and attachments found to be convenient for a particular need or desire.
Often a great deal of attention is paid to the weights and strengths of the materials from which the boat or boats are constructed. These points are of especial concern inasmuch as it is often necessary to carry or portage the boat or boats as well as to provide necessary space and/or support for equipment and/or paddlers.
In this latter regard, one of the principal means developed since the inception of the boat and still widely used today is the carrying yoke which the boater employs when portaging the boat or boats from one watercourse to another or where beaver dams, treefalls, waterfalls, dams, seasonal and non-seasonal water level changes and other natural and/or manmade obstacles require recourse to alternative methods of transport such as walking in order to circumvent the obstruction or obstructions.
As most commonly constructed, the yoke comprises a frame assembly attached to a boat and allowing one or more boaters to support and carry a boat upon and/or above the head and shoulders during portage. This method being preferred to dragging or otherwise carrying a boat from a more awkward posture, possibly incurring damage to the boat, ancillary gear and/or persons(s) under portage and which may as well prevent carrying of additional gear and/or supplies, necessitating repeated portaging in order to traverse a particular obstacle or set of obstacles.
Oftentimes a boat is selected to support the needs of a single occupant and in this event the need to be able to carry not only the boat, but as well to simultaneously carry any or all ancillary gear is accentuated. This situation is particularly true with that class of boat known as the solo canoe, i.e., canoes which are designed and intended for use by a single occupant.
In the case of the solo canoe, this problem is particularly pronounced inasmuch as the need for balance during portage requires that the boat be supported from a relatively central location wherein other types of canoes often have a thwart which is frequently relied upon to attach a yoke, either temporarily, semi-permanently or permanently.
Even absent such a central thwart, a yoke may be permanently or semi-permanently centrally attached to tandem canoes, i.e., those canoes designed to accommodate plural occupants.
Such a central thwart is absent in, and further, a yoke may not be permanently or semi-permanently centrally attached to, a solo canoe because the canoeist must of necessity occupy the same central area of the canoe when propelling the boat, to aid forward propulsion by paddling, to enable effective steering and also to allow an appropriate distribution of gear and equipment within the canoe for maintaining balance, et cetera, during travel over water.
As well, experience has shown that this same vital central area of the boat and particularly of the solo canoe is the portion of the canoe from which significant and desirable activities particularly including angling are most successfully and beneficially pursued. Indeed, angling often comprises a core motivation for accessing remote water areas wherein the utility of the solo canoe as a method of transportation is especially and particularly sought.
The absence of a central thwart greatly complicates stable, slippage-free attachment of a yoke without recourse to methods wherein the yoke is secured by means of screws, screw tightened clamps or similar arrangements, affixing the yoke to the gunwales, floor or other portions of the boat. Screws are generally undesirable in a boating accessory because screws can easily be lost without possibility of ready recovery in the water environment and further because screws usually require tools, such as screwdrivers, comprising extra, added weight.
Use of pins, et cetera, requires holes to be drilled or otherwise fashioned which detract from the aesthetic qualities of the boat and which pins or the like may cause difficulty in over-the-road transportation of the boat if they are permanently installed to protrude upward from the gunwales, for example.
It is extremely important that the yoke arrangement be relatively slippage-free during portage because portaging often is accomplished whilst heavily loaded with equipment and further often involves ascent and/or descent of grades under moist or even wet conditions (e.g., wet rocks covered or partially covered with organic matter, mud, and the like) wherein footing and balance are often uncertain at best.
Sudden shifting of weight, such as by way of example the boat, under circumstances of this nature comprises a risk scenario ranging from distinct inconvenience to clear danger of substantial injury to either the portaging person, the boat and/or the accompanying equipment.
Under these circumstances, it is extremely desirable to have and maintain at least one hand free in order to secure balance and so to minimize difficulty in portage. It is thus very undesirable to need to secure the yoke against slippage by having to place one or both hands on the yoke during portage.
Secure, slippage-free attachment of the yoke to the boat avoids a major source of sudden weight shifts which are frequently encountered when portaging with certain types of boat yokes.
It is in regard to the use of the solo canoe that the present invention was conceived and developed and an intent of which is to enable especially and particularly the single individual to easily portage a boat such as a solo canoe, as well as desired and/or necessary ancillary equipment such as by way of example, camping and/or fishing equipment and supplies (e.g., tent, food) without necessity for complex and time-consuming installation and removal of portaging equipment, and, as well, to allow ready access to the vital central portion of the boat during other related boating activities.
More generally, rapid, easy, effective and useful attachment and/or detachment of a boat to another object, such as a fishing rod holder, car top carrier, camera tripod or support, a table such as a food or beverage or specimen collecting or reading or gaming table, recording device platform, spare paddle holder or other accessory without use of tools and with minimum effort is extremely desirable and at present not generally possible or as effective as desired.
What are needed are methods and apparatus which facilitate attachment/detachment of equipment such as portaging gear to boats and especially to solo canoes which methods and/or apparatus do not require use of tools for field installation and use and which apparatus comprises as few separable parts as is possible.